Puzzling Stack Exchange
Puzzling Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [game]

A puzzle that asks for determining the winner in a multi-player game.

A puzzle that asks for determining the winner in a (typically combinatorial) multi-player game. Here multi-player may actually mean

  • single-player: solitaire games; games against nature; games against stochastic adversaries

  • two-player: standard board games; combinatorial two-player games

  • three or more players: resource-sharing games; profit division games; allocation games.

The solution to a combinatorial two-player game puzzle usually consists of a full analysis of all game situations, by classifying them into "wins" and "losses" for either player. Take note that game questions that aren't puzzles are off-topic and should be asked on Arqade Stack Exchange.

275 questions
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Face Up Poker with Alice and Bob

Alice and Bob are going to have a poker night. They have invented a variant where there are no secrets, and no randomness, called Face-Up Poker. Here's how it works. A standard 52 card deck is spread face up on a table. Alice picks up any 5 cards…
Mike Earnest
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Chomp (Game with a Poisoned Chocolate Bar)

In the game of Chomp, two players start with a chocolate bar, which is scored into an $a$ by $b$ array of squares (where $a\cdot b>1$). The square in the lower left is poisoned. The players alternate turns. On their turn, a player chooses a square,…
Mike Earnest
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Squic Squac Squo

Two players take turns writing an X (first player) or an O (second player) in a 9 by 9 grid of cells. A player wins if they manage to occupy four cells which form the vertices of a square of any size with horizontal and vertical sides. If this…
Mike Earnest
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Bigger number (sometimes) wins

Two players play the following game: Each player writes down a whole number between 0 and 100 on a slip of paper, then the players simultaneously reveal their choices. If the difference between the two numbers is at least 60, then the player with…
Julian Rosen
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Grid puzzle solutions

I have a simple grid puzzle: Example: | X | Y | X | | Y | X | Y | | Y | X | Y | The move is defined as a row or a column move. So when you move one cell, whole column/row moves. Example top row right 2 steps: 1 step | X | X | Y | | Y | X…
Jakub Gabčo
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Alternate Face Up Poker with Alice and Bob (on the floor)

I was so convinced that the "correct" answers to this excellent question were wrong that I took out a deck of cards to prove it. Then I realised that I was changing one of the rules. So here's the alternate version with Bob's rules: Alice and Bob…
Akshay Rangnekar
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The Diamond Game

Barkeep: Well hello there, come to play the famous Diamond Game? The rules are notoriously simple. Here's an ace of diamonds card (it's larger than normal), and here are a pile of pennies. We each take turns to place pennies on the card. Whoever is…
Ladifas
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Drawing loops on a sheet of paper

Two people are playing a game, in which each player takes turns drawing closed loops on a sheet of paper. Each new loop must intersect each of the other loops exactly twice. When one player has no moves available, the other player wins. Is it…
user54553
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Social Distancing L-Game

This is a variation of Edward De Bono’s famous L-game, but played on a 5x5 board (instead of 4x4) with social distancing rules in place. More specifically, two players (Blue and Orange) take turns moving according to the following…
happystar
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The best way to place circles into a square

Given a square of side length as least 2, there are two players who must in turn place a unit radius circle into the square without overlapping any previously placed circle. The loser is the first player who can't place a circle. For example, if the…
Simd
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All bracket results from final places in tournament

32 players are participating in a tournament. It's a knockout tournament, so it looks a lot like March Madness. You want to know how all the games went. The problem is that you only know the rankings of each team, and the brackets aren't published.…
Poultryghast
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